Band:	Darkthrone
Album:	F.O.A.D.
Style:	Crust punk, Black metal
Release date:	September 2007

01. These Shores Are Damned
02. Canadian Metal
03. The Church Of Real Metal
04. The Banners Of Old
05. Fuck Off And Die
06. Splitkein Fever
07. Raised On Rock
08. Pervertor Of The 7 Gates
09. Wisdom Of The Dead

"F.O.A.D." means "fuck off and die" and this is a really good way to send a big "fuck you" to the system? The new album is not an album of Black Metal, Darkthrone is not into this kind of music anymore (well not really, let say that they just don't play pure Black Metal nowadays). But even if it's surprising to listen to this kind of music from a band which is a legend of its first original musical style, I will tell you one thing, these guys have balls and big ones? I can already tell you that "F.O.A.D." will stay in our memories?

I suppose that this album will be a love or hate one. All the people who want some "true necro" Black Metal will probably be a bit disappointed, but I'm sure that a lot of them will understand Darkthrone's message too. This album is like a big kick in our assess from a band which wanted to prove that they're able change their musical orientation without doing a big step forward them but doing a big return to the roots of their music. And it works! Even if "F.O.A.D." is not the best album of the decade and even if some songs like "F.O.A.D" (a real great song that we could compare to a dark Motorhead release) or "Canadian Metal" are better than some others ones ("The Banners Of Old is a bit boring in the end) all in all "F.O.A.D." is a surprising album full of old school spirits from Doom to Death, Punk and of course Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. Honestly I like it a lot because there is something with this album, the guys give "something" through their music and if you like old school music I'm sure that you'll enjoy a lot "F.O.A.D.". A bit like Entombed with "Uprising" Darkthrone releases a great album of modern but old school Metal and really that's a good thing!

Even if "F.O.A.D." is recorded with the spirit of the 70's and 80's the sound is really correct, not clean as hell too but perfect for such music, it's simply well mixed. Also the artwork is in my opinion one of the best that I've seen lately. Painted by Denis Dread this cover is a bit like the first ones of Iron Maiden, with this amazing Horror / Punk attitude? This is speechless? With its great production with a bunch of great songs, "F.O.A.D." is an excellent album which only suffers a bit of a lack of some real original songs. But after all it's new things with old things so it cannot be so original?

I'm happy to listen to such kind of music nowadays. In general I'm a bit bored by all those new Black Metal bands who want to be "necro" and "krieg" before anything else. Darkthrone is a master of the genre and that's great to see that they are still able to give a good lesson to all these people. "F.O.A.D." is a perfect bridge between lots of different Metal scenes with a delicious rock n roll spirit? that's great.